Lovelock is in the DESERT. It gets an average of less than 6 inches of rain a year. That is probably less than 10 days of rain?
So lucky us ... we got cold rain on the 72 mile ride between Lovelock and Winnemucca. Despite being from Seattle where I should know better, I didn't dress quite warmly enough for the ride. Needed the arm warmer layer under the jacket. See, I had this Pollyanna delusion in my head reinforced by chirpy weather channel talking heads that it would clear off. And it did ... about 2 hours after we arrived in Winnemucca. So despite what was no doubt beautiful country for riding, I was pretty much pedaling as fast as possible with my head down, shaking water off my visor and wiping my glasses so I could see the road. It was one of those rides where you can feel the water sloshing in your bike shoes. Stopped briefly to top off water, pedalled on. Too cold to stop - warmer to keep moving. Needless to say made great time on this ride and arrived before noon.
So the staff at America by Bike pointed out that usually this stretch of the ride was 90 to 100 degrees, and at least we weren't burning up in the desert. Which is true. The locals were ecstatic ... it had been a while for rain.
Rooms weren't ready till 2:00 so some of us headed over to the laundry mat to catch up and then washed off all gear: bike, helmet, jacket, pants, booties - it's all covered in road smooge.
Road smooge is grimier than just mud. It's a toxic mixture of dirt, oil, and whatever else is deposited on the highway since the last rain. Your bike kicks up a trail of it from the rear wheel which goes in a cold mucky streak right up your back. It's up your legs and embedded in your bike chain and derailleurs. If you were at home you might be tempted to ignore it a while, but having to ride the next morning means it's all got to be cleaned up and dried out. But I'm becoming much more zen like about my bike and riding as it's pretty clear on this ride we're going to do things that I never considered possible before and 72 miles in the cold rain is just one of them. Overall that's a good thing.
At the laundromat (a happening place on Saturday afternoon) we saw a large number of cowboys doing laundry. They looked like real cowboys. So I was chatting with a couple while waiting on the spin cycle and they said they were in town for the Nevada State High School Champion Rodeo. Folks from all over the state had come in. SCORE! Gotta get to that while I'm here.
Dinner that night was a a place called the Flying Pig and it had neon pigs in flashing lights and what my roommate Judy calls "beefcake" (cutouts of sexy scantly clad men) taped up around the top of the ladies room. I got the smokehouse which had 3 kinds of meat and was an unbelievably huge platter of food ... scary. No, I didn't eat it all.
The next morning we were riding on to Battle Mountain. (If any bookclubbers are reading, Battle Mountain is one of the towns in The Glass Castle where whatshernames family lived.) Anyway it was only 55 miles today with one decent climb, pretty easy, so we slept in till 7 AM and got a late start. On the way out of town we pass the the fairgrounds and ... SCORE - there is the rodeo. There are 4 of us and in we go.
Now 4 spandex clad cyclists in our tighty shorts and neon jackets and helmets do not exactly fit in at the Rodeo. But it took about 2 minutes to be approached ... "So where are you going on that bike?" That's how I met Jerry - a real life cowboy, movie star handsome who was originally from Longview Washington but ended up in Hollywood working for 30 years as a stuntman in movies. Really! He was great. We chatted for a while and he gave me the lowdown on the area and the rodeo. We were eventually joined by other cyclists and overall it was like the circus came to town. We saw the bareback bronc riding and some calf roping, and then had to move on up the road. It was a blast.
Heading to Battle Mountain turned out to be a harder ride than anticipated. We had a pretty good climb - about 3.5 miles - and some bad road. Bad like - I didn't know you could ride your bike over 6 miles of this. So rough it shook my water bottle cage off and I had to put it back on the road. But now my perspective of "bad road" has been exponentially altered.
We are still doing a lot of interstate riding. It's literally the only way across Nevada and we'll be on it all the way to Salt Lake except for stretches on rural roads when possible. Otherwise no place to stay. It actually isn't bad ... wide shoulder and not that much traffic. And you can go REALLY Fast ... which is kinda nice. Trucks give you a lot of room and the roads except for the 5 miles today are in excellent condition. John - who's doing this ride for the 4th time - gave some great advice about putting an earplug in the traffic side ear ... you can hear easily but it cuts down the roar.
Goodbye 2015, Hello 2016!!
10 years ago
